String of Fate

Chapter Sixty Three

She was here again with her friend, trying to learn how to skateboard. She was also failing miserably. I didn't know why she was suddenly fascinated with it. It was a month ago that she had first showed up, bringing a book and reading under a streetlight – but it was obvious that she was watching us skate. I had never even seen her before that night. It was like she'd just appeared out of thin air to come and watch us skate.

The next night, the guy had been with her. They both just sat and watched us skate, chatting to each other as they did so. It was a little distracting for me, even though the other skaters didn't seem to be affected by the whole thing. It wasn't like they weren't allow to come and sit to watch us, but it was strange how they just suddenly showed up.

It was three nights ago that she had brought a bright pink skateboard with her. It looked brand new and it wouldn't have surprised me if she had just taken the tags off of it while she was heading to the skate park. Now, she had actually entered the skate park and was balancing precariously on the skateboard again, holding onto her friend's hand so tightly her knuckles were white.

"Scarlett, I highly recommend giving up after tonight. Your mother will begin to suspect something if you wake up with any more bruises." The friend pleaded, still trying to help her on the skateboard even though he wasn't one to support her in her stupid idea. He wasn't able to tell her that her feet were too close together and she was too far towards the front of the board. As soon as he let her go, she was going to fall again. In fact, she did, landing hard on the ground. "I did warn you. Come on, Scarlett, let's just go home and admit that skateboarding is not for you."

"Let me have some fun before my dad marries me off to some guy that I've never met because it will benefit the family." Scarlett retorted, getting back up and brushing off the back of her jeans again. She held onto his arms tightly while she stepped onto the board. She was still for a moment – too tense. "I'm okay. I'm going to let you go now."

She did, and immediately fell backwards. I managed to catch her before she fell to the ground. I hadn't realised that I had been standing so close to her, but it was only a small skate park. I decided then that someone who actually knew how to skate had to help her. She's never get it otherwise. Skating wasn't something that you could learn from books or videos. "That's it. I'm going to teach you. It's painful watching you trying to learn from him. Go and get your board. Ste, did you bring a board pen with you?"

"There's one in the car. I'll go and get it." The teacher replied. He came back two minutes later, tossing a black board pen to me. Luckily, the top of Scarlett's skateboard was a bright pink so the black marker would show up quite well. If she had bought a normal skateboard, I would have been buggered for this idea.

"Dude, can you hold the board on the floor, please? Scarlett, climb on." I ordered. They both did as I asked and I crouched down, moving Scarlett's feet into the right places and drew around them with the marker. She climbed off and turned to see what I had done. I pointed to the board. "You need to put your feet there. You always have your feet too close together and you're too far forward on the board. It's why you're always falling off immediately. You're too tense, too. You need to loosen up and have fun. Skating is fun, after all."

"Sure it is." She answered, taking the arm I outstretched. I held on to her tightly as she climbed back onto the board. When both of her feet were firmly planted on the board, her looking down to make sure she was putting her feet in the right place, she took a deep breath and tried to relax when she let it out. She rolled her shoulders, too. "Is this relaxed enough?"

"Depends how quickly you fall of." I told her. I held out my other hand, her hands grabbing my forearms while I held onto her elbows. "Now, try and push towards your left. I'll hold onto you."